The baby blanket I've been working on for a while is finished. I handed it over before measuring the amount of yarn I used, but at least I got a photo!
It took a while to decide on an edging. I ended up doing two single crochets in each gap all the way around, and then did a round of reverse crab stitch (putting the hook between the single crochets of the previous round because I'm lazy that way).
It still slightly ruffles, but it's better than some of my other attempts at a border, which either ruffled or pulled in or both (ruffle on the sides, pull in on the ends, or vice versa).
It's small, probably less than 30" square, but reasonable enough. And it's pretty cute.
I like the variegation combined with the texture and the slight bling of the mylar. Hopefully the recipient will like it, too.
I could have taken more yarn for another baby blanket, but I took some darker blue acrylic instead and will knit another hat or two for either this charity or a different charity. Then maybe I'll do another crocheted baby blanket.
(The blanket is going to a local organization that works with women and children.)
My pink shawl is continuing to make progress, yay!
My green sweater is not, boohoo!
And I haven't yet started another project in any of the crafts that I write about on this blog.
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I did get together with friends last week to mordant some wool for an upcoming natural dye day. We just did alum plus cream of tartar.
Since we all had different backgrounds in dyeing, we all had some different experiences with quantities. How much alum and cream of tartar does one need? What is the actual procedure for mordanting? If you want to refresh a mordant solution to mordant additional goods, how much do you need to add to refresh? Which alum, in particular, since different chemicals in the same family may share the name "alum" when we go to buy them?
It turns out that there are many answers to these questions.
Which means that it's a pretty forgiving process.
And I guess we'll see what happens when we do Round 2 -- Dye Day!
The longer answer is that every good dyeing book and reputable website (reputable meaning that they sell dyes and mordants and aren't just AI hallucinations or twee misinformation from people without much experience) has a slightly different method with slightly different percentages and what-not.
Anywhere from about 5-20% WOF is suggested for alum, with many clustering around 15%, and with several sources warning that too much (i.e. over about 20%) will mess up the wool. The percentages weren't significantly different for the different types of alum that are commonly found through natural dyeing supply shops.
Cream of tartar is used to acidify the bath and reduce chances of stickiness and is usually suggested at around 5-6% WOF (and often said not to be necessary or desirable for mordanting silk).
Refresh amounts range from one-quarter to one-half for the alum, with no refresh needed for the cream of tartar, and some also suggested using a hydrometer to calculate appropriately. Some said to discard the bath if it got cloudy or had precipitates in it, while others said it made no difference.
Time and temperature were all over the place, though all agreed that keeping the bath at a simmer or below was preferable. Some suggested that the goods should simmer for anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour and then cool in the mordanting bath overnight, while others didn't seem to care. Some people had good luck with room-temperature mordanting (a cold soak of several days to a month) while others didn't.
I have heard that the post-mordanting treatment can affect the results, too. Do you dye right away? Keep the skeins damp (but not moldy)? Let them dry and store them? Put them in the refrigerator or freezer? I have no idea what effect, if any, these variables would have on the dyeing. We won't be dyeing for at least another week, so we know these particular skeins will be stored for a while before getting dyed. I don't think we have enough dyestuffs to require us mordanting up anything more for this round. And I don't recall anything weird from former dye days where we mordanted in one pot, pulled the skeins out of the mordanting bath, and then dropped them into the dyebath. So who knows?
I am not a professional dyer and don't care if I have a fully repeatable process or get any specific colors. As long as I end up with interesting and colorful yarn (or cloth or roving) at the end, I'm fine.
